Give It A Shot
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day five hundred and forty-four: It took her a while, but now's about time she spoke to one Anthony Rashad.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 25th cycle. Now cycle 26!_

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><p><strong>"Give It A Shot"<br>Mercedes/Anthony **

She wasn't planning anything that day, she really wasn't. She had thought about approaching him, yes, but thinking about it was hardly the same as actually taking those steps forward. But then there she was, in the library, looking for information for her history paper, when she saw him, through the stacks, in the next aisle over. She had just realized it was him when he turned around and spotted her. There was a pause, and then she smiled, waving carefully… he waved back, then held up his finger and walked off. She wasn't sure what had happened, if maybe he'd just not wanted to…

"Hey…" She turned and saw he had crossed over into her aisle, standing beside her.

"Hi," she smiled.

"You wouldn't happen to know where the biographies are?" he asked, and if it hadn't been for the look on his face, and the sound of his voice, she might have panicked and thought that was the only reason he had come to talk to her, but there was more to it than that.

"It's this way," she indicated, and he followed her. "That's for English class?" she asked.

"Yeah, I kind of messed up on the last test, so it's make-up work," he explained. She nodded silently, and when they reached the section, she pointed it out. "Thanks," he told her, starting to look through the books. Mercedes stood there for a moment, unsure how to proceed. She'd gotten a pretty good feeling that he was up for more conversation than just 'where are the biographies,' but she didn't want to make assumptions, or impose… For what little experience she had in the dating world, this was a scenario that still left her wondering. "How's this?" she was pulled out of her thoughts when Anthony put the book before her eyes. She had to remind herself what she was doing, and then she could look and 'assess'.

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Were you done?" he asked. She looked back; she wasn't done, but she could get around that… So she indicated that she was. "Good, come on," he nodded toward the door. Once he'd checked out his book, he led her back into the hall. "I was hoping I'd run into you. I thought you might come and talk the other day in the cafeteria, but then you…"

"Climbed on a chair, yeah…" she looked down, feeling very awkward now.

"That was great," he laughed, and she looked up, as though to say 'for real?' "I swear," he insisted.

"Well, I have my moments," she smirked.

"They're pretty great moments," he agreed. Now she wasn't sure where to look anymore. She wasn't used to getting so flustered, but she sure didn't hate it… "So where are you headed?" he asked, and she just had to shrug… she really had no idea for a moment, but then she remembered.

"I have Glee practice," she told him, almost expecting him to snap out of whatever lovey little look he had going and just walk away, but he didn't.

"Let me walk you," he offered his arm, and she honestly could not stop smiling even if she wanted to. "What about after Glee practice?" he asked her.

"Nothing special," she answered. "Just going home, I guess."

"Right away?" he asked, and she shrugged. He didn't speak then, and she looked at him.

"Why, did you have a better idea?"

"I'm working on it," he nodded.

"How's that going?"

"I'm not very creative," he admitted. "All I could think about was… nothing; I have no idea. All I know is I'd like to spend more time with you today." She knew she was staring now, and she couldn't help it… That was possibly the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her… and it scared her. It scared her because now she had a choice to make… She could choose to be afraid that everything would turn out the way every single time had turned out, or she could just go for it and trust that this could be a start, that it would work out… Things would go bad, again and again, but then that one time it would work, and that was all it would take.

"I'd like to spend more time with you, too," she told him, just as they reached the door.

"So I'll be right here waiting," he told her.

"Okay," she smiled.

She went into Glee practice, and the others probably wondered what was going on with her, because she was just… smiling, ear to ear, the whole time. She didn't argue on a thing, didn't question who got what solo, she just went with it. In truth, her stomach was knotting itself into a ball, little by little… What if he didn't show? What if she'd had it all wrong and she had put herself into that same awful situation all over again and…

There he was… waiting. In her mind it felt like she'd just released the biggest of breaths. "Hey," he greeted her. "Guess what."

"Hey… I don't know," she answered both prompts. He held out his arm, just as he had before, and she took it, just as she had before.

"I finally thought of something," he told her, and she laughed.

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>********always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!****** **


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